Fake news from Virginia

Will someone please throw an ocean of icewater on the Pelosi-Schumer-MSM axis of evil?

Their ecstasy over the results in Virginia’s election returns Tuesday night shows how desperate the Democrats are for any sign of hope that their party is not already dead.

Democrats merely won the elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey — two Blue States where they were always expected to win.

It was hardly a “wave election.” Republicans suffered no surprise losses to Democrats, and the GOP still controlled a huge majority of the country’s governor’s offices and state legislatures.

Yet by Wednesday morning the liberal media’s talking heads were so happy you’d have thought President Trump had been voted out of office, the Democrats had won back Congress and Hillary Clinton had been installed on her Oval Office throne.

Republicans losses in Virginia and New Jersey were gleefully framed by the liberal media as referendums on President Trump’s first year, but it was fake news.

It would have been real news if the Republican governor candidates, Ed Gillespie of Virginia and Kim Guadagno of New Jersey, had pulled off surprise wins.

Or if a liberal Democrat had taken the congressional seat vacated by conservative Jason Chaffetz in Utah (instead of being crushed by a Republican who didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 but supports his agenda).

But the pundits breathlessly telling us a Democrat won in Virginia and New Jersey? News? Yes. Shocking? Hardly.

A serious repudiation of Donald Trump? The first signs of the decline of Trumpism? Don’t think so.

Trump or no Trump, from day one Ed Gillespie was never going to win in Virginia, where about 10 million federal workers live and vote Democratic.

And in New Jersey, a true-blue state, the only Republican politician who was repudiated on Tuesday was Mr. Unpopularity himself, outgoing Gov. Chris Christie.

His lieutenant governor, Guadagno, never had a prayer — and she wasn’t endorsed by Trump, who knew it.

I can understand the Democrats and their media soulmates wanting to make Tuesday’s elections into a fake referendum on President Trump.

But I don’t understand the Republicans and conservatives who joined in and said the elections were a sign of doom for the GOP in the 2018 elections.

Republicans will have their problems in 2018, especially if they can’t get anything important through Congress.

But this week’s election results had nothing to do with 2018 or President Trump — until he tweeted himself into the story.

Unfortunately, despite being in Asia, our narcissist in chief had to blame Gillespie’s loss on the fact that Gillespie didn’t fully embrace him.

Not everything is about Donald Trump, but he — like the hate-blinded media — thinks it is.

Some facts about Virginia, Mr. President:

Hillary beat you there by 5 points last year. On Tuesday Gillespie got more votes than you did, but Democrats turned out in much greater numbers in the suburbs of northern Virginia.

That’s why the former head of the Republican National Committee lost — as everyone but his kids knew he would.

For you to blame Gillespie’s defeat on his not embracing you is totally narcissistic, childish and wrong, Mr. President.

Not to mention self-destructive. Instead of the media discussing the tough speech you gave to the North Koreans, they talked about your Gillespie tweet.

How about acting like a grown-up president, for a change, Mr. Trump?

How about tweeting something like: “Congratulations to the Democrats for their victories on Tuesday. When I come back from Asia I hope we can find a way to work together on tax reform.”

So Trump is still Trump. His core constituency will stay faithful to him, no matter what he said about Gillespie or how he said it.

But if he keeps tweeting the way he does, the president will never win more friends in the Republican Party.

And if he’s ever going to get anything passed in Congress by 2018, he’s going to need every Republican friend he can get.

Michael Reagan is the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan. Visit his websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.